The Biography of “GholamAli Soleimani” The CEO of the Solico Production Group

The Biography of “GholamAli Soleimani” The CEO of the Solico Production Group

“GholamAli Soleimani” The CEO of the Solico Production Group was born in the city of Amol. He started his career in 1969 as a teacher and tutor while he was still a college student, but in 1973, he began a more official job in Saadi marketplace and as a car and automobile spare parts salesperson. After a while, he moved his office to “Takht e Jamshid” street in Tehran and established two companies called “Iran e Shoma” and “Marketing Service and Research”. Soleimani was more active in “Iran e Shoma” company and acted, as a sales representative for industrial machinery and raw materials until 1977, but his efforts in this line of work remained fruitless. GholamAli Soleimani always welcomes even his failures and believes that there is "always something good in what fate puts before you"

At some point, Mr. Soleimani concluded that the firms and companies that he establishes aren’t profitable. Therefore he decided to make a change first in himself and then in the field of his activities. This change was moving to an office in Azadi Street and beginning a business in distribution of meat products that were from Gilan and Arezumani Meat product companies. After a while, he moved to another office in Azarbaijan Street, it was an apartment that belonged to his sister and the no 99 in Azarbaijaan Street remains his central office. Here he kept following his distribution business with a very limited and humble profit a penny per kilograms.

By the beginning of the Islamic revolution big names in meat industry like Mikailian and Arezuman left the country, he faced difficulties in his own line of work. Considering what he had experienced before he decided to solve the problems with production and expand his business. Therefore, he bought two industrial hamburger-making machines, set them inside the same building, and began his work. In 1979 he built his first big scale factory in Shiraz, it was called “Demes”

After that, GholamAli Soleimani established another meat products factory in Tehran in 1980 and after that; he started the construction of a meat factory in Amol. At the time, Mr. Soleimani was a well-known figure with the industry ministry of Iran because of his effective and important activities in the field. At the beginning of the revolution, the Minister of Industry and Mines asked Mr. Soleimani to travel to the south shores of the country and evaluate the quality of seafood products and resolve a dispute between the ministry and the fishery organization officials. He travelled to Dayer, Bushehr and a few other cities to solve the issue.

On his tour, Mr. Soleimani noticed that large quantities of the fish are discarded and wasted in the plants and decided to find a solution for that too. In Tehran, one of his factories was equipped with a machine to separate meat from bones, so he moved this machine to Bushehr to use it to separate fish bones from the meat. With the help of the late Dr. Kasaeian, meat products and marine products such as Fish fingers, burgers and sausages were produced.

After the formation of this new product, they took the products to Tehran for sales but the smell of the fish in these products was a reason that they were not received well among costumers. At the time, during the war the country was facing a difficulty to supply meat and meat products. At the request of the head of the meat products administration, Mr. Soleimani was appointed to a project in order to form meat products that have high protein content. This was done by receiving lamb meat from the administration mixing it with fish and delivering the final product to the ministry. The second change in the life of Mr. Soleimani was this project because at the time of war the only available meat was lamb.

Considering that, this was a unique product and was prepared for the firtst time in the world the health ministry refused to approve the product for market distribution and it took him a long time to convince the authorities and get the final approval for mass production of it.

After this stage, GholamAli Soleimani who knew about the opportunities in the field of exports encouraged his economic partners to begin the export of various materials including licorice plant, pickles, and marinades and bring in monetary funds into the country.

After this the dairy products became the focus of his activities and expanded very quickly. The products that began their realization from the Amol facility are now among the many food products, beverages, and diary that are included in the everyday diet of our people and cover a good range of foods.

Mr. Soleimani believes that his success comes from the human resources of the company, the work force that he has carefully chosen from the most reputable universities of Iran and abroad. He believes that providing job opportunities for the educated generations of the society keeps them motivated to stay in the country. Whit this belief and with his strong hand in management Mr. GholamAli Soleimani has worked with these people in a sharing environment and has put their new ideas in practice. The founder and manager of Solico groups emphasizes that using top knowledge and sending the managers abroad to learn about new expertise, techniques and products are the main reasons for his success.

Mr. GholamAli Soleimani always considers export as a platform for expansion of the economic circles of his group of companies and by that the expansion of the economic horizons for his country. The move began with an export value of $8000 dollars, and it will reach up to more than 200 million dollars in exports in 2015. He aims to maximize the value of exports in two or three years up to a billion dollars. Despite some problems in the field of manufacturing and exporting, his Kalleh Company has managed to win the first place in Iranian exports in the last few years.

With this approach and with his special view of the future to create a platform for industry development in Iran, he proposed the establishment of factories and cooperation with various Islamic countries such as Malaysia and Iraq. The proposal will be put into practice in a not so distant future and is now an executive issue on the agenda with the various sectors of economic development administrations in these countries so that the Solico Group with the strategic management of Mr. Soleimani would expand its activities to outside the borders.

In 2015, "GholamAli Soleimani" attended the official opening of the sixth Conference on Trade and Finance of the Islamic world in Putra World Trade Center and was awarded as one of the elite and one of the 10 top influential people in the world of Islamic Economy. He received his award from Jamil Khir Baharom the Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department.

Based on the expert opinions of a board of juries in the conference, The candidates are ranked according to their actions and initiatives towards increasing the capacities and capabilities for economic growth in the Islamic world and offering their services to the society and people in need.